Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 67

Friday, March 14. 1986 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 67 JAZZ 'BENNY GOODMAN': CH. 12 HAS A WINNER Theatre on the same bill with Goodman, and how the latter routed his opening-day jitters with a single ululating five-word exclamation. How or why Andre Previn was picked to do the voiceover for a brief pictorial biography of Benny beggars the imagination, but no harm done. All in all, a generally intelligent package of its kind, well worth the VCR treatment if one is so inclined and equipped.

Those interested in the digital studio recording and be advised that it is not a soundtrack, but a wholly independent production may write the Musical Heritage Society at 1710 Highway 35, Ocean, N.J. 07712. Tonight at 9, in a similar vein but not nearly as close to the authentic article, Channel 12 is repeating a 1984 big band show, "Glenn Miller: A Moonlight Serenade," with Tex Bcn-eke, Sylvia Syms, Anita Gillette, Julius La Rosa and the late Johnny "Gimme a Pigfoot," which was done in the session, and "Ja-Da," which was not. Rosemary Clooney stands in ably for B.G. vocalists Helen Ward, Martha Tilton and Peggy Lee but finishes her songalog, inexplicably, with "There's No Business Like Show Business." A sunken-cheeked Teddy Wilson, a subdued Slam Stewart and a Red Norvo looking like the Old Man of the Mountain remind us vividly if not unkindly of time's eternal journey.

Then there are Morton Gould, with a footnote about B.G.'s colorblindness as a bandleader; an apologetic Bobby Short (recruited, it would seem, simply as a pleasant face to introduce Carrie Smith); Yale University president A. Bartlett Giamatti think of Benny Goodman as a universal and Frank Sinatra, with an affectionate remembrance of the day (Dec. 30, 1942) that he began his career as a solo performer at New York's Paramount Desmond. By NELS NELSON Daily News Jazz Columnist There are televised big band era tributes and then there are televised big band era tributes, and most of both kinds come to our house and yours about this time of year, when Public Television puts on its Al Jolson eyes and clatters to its knees and reminds us how grateful we all should be for our weekly rations of Jacques Cousteau, Marty Stauffer and assorted sharks, dolphins, chimps, penguins, wallabies, hyenas and mountain goats. This time I am pleased to say I have a winner for you.

"Benny Goodman: Let's Dance A Musical Tribute" airs on Channel 12 at 9:05 p.m. tomorrow. The two-hour special was taped Oct. 7 at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel before an agglomeration of the King of Swing's most enduring subjects, most of them manifestly in the full bloom of pre-retirement, though I am fairly positive I spotted one neatly tuxedo'd sprout of about 25 with a ponytail nearly to his lumbar region. The moment the tape started to roll (thanks to an advance peek at same, courtesy of the placable folks at WHYY), I knew there was something sui generis about this band, quite aside from the corporeal presence of B.C.

himself. One expects the usual cadre of jaded if impeccably professional studio musicians employed in these situations, but this was a band that displayed the peremptory earmarks of having played together often and with no little stamp of personal fulfillment. I recognized only Louis Bellson, Bob Haggart and Dick Hy-man in the galley irons, but an emergency call to Levittown's Russ Connor, the incumbent and undefeated all-time champion B.G. authority who had been present at the Marriott Marquis that evening confirmed my instincts. Most of this band had gigged around New York together under the informal leadership of tenorman Loring Schoenberg.

Some of the others were Danny Bank, baritone saxophone; Ted Nash, tenor; James Chir-illo, guitar, and Randy Sandke and Laurie Frink, trumpets. La Frink probably is the first female instrumentalist to play for Goodman since Dottie Dodgion sat in on drums briefly around 1960, according to Connor. Goodman caught the band at a club and apparently liked the idea of a loosely confederated but well-indoctrinated working group he could engage on reasonably short notice. He and the band first appeared in public together in September at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, taped the PBS special in October and recorded an album for the Musical Heritage Society, played a Yale University benefit in December and concertized last month at Washington's Kennedy Center. There is said to be a gig in the offing at Carnegie Hall but the details thus far have been elusive.

Oh yes, the PBS special. Goodman seems in fine spirits and he plays extremely well for a man not far from the brink of his 77th birthday (May 30). His clarineting has plenty of bite; its lyricism is gloriously intact, a model for this or any generation. In his only speech of the evening, covering a minute or so, Benny dedicates the show to arranger Fletcher Henderson and proceeds to honor Smack in the best possible way, by featuring his wonderfully symmetrical and virtually self-swinging call-, and-response charts Would Do "Most Anything for You," "King Porter Stomp," "Blue Room," "You Turned the Tables on Me," "Down i Benny Goodman on Ch. 12 at 9:05 p.m.

Saturday South Camp Meetin'," "Stealin' The band responds with sweet and almost reverential esteem. The guest artists and the panegyrists that the producers have delivered to B.G. are an interesting if sometimes puzzling lot Blues specialist Carrie Smith is introduced on the thin premise of Goodman's having accompanied Bessie Smith during her last recording session (Nov. 24, 1933). She y.ngs wm Ml St Elmos Fire Available in VHS Videocassette 79.98 LfmJ dJLl SAM GOODY WIOQ PRESENT AN AWARD WINNING CONTEST Come to participating Sam Goody stores and register to win FREE overnight movie rentals during 1986.

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